Amanda’s experience spans publishing, digital media, membership, events, conferences, and exhibitions. She led a management buy-out of Faversham House in 2010 and subsequently bought out her private equity partners a few years later. With her fellow directors, she has been responsible for repositioning the company as an omni-channel digital intelligence business building on the company’s strong brands in utilities, sustainability, and visual communications.

Karen Baxter started her career as a pharmacist in the NHS, where she developed an interest in the reference sources she was using in her clinical practice. This led her to take on a variety of editorial roles focussed on content creation.

During her publishing career Karen has been involved with a number of digital transformation projects and has led the re-imagining of some core Pharmaceutical Press titles to ensure they are fit for purpose in a digital information environment.

Tom has extensive experience of running print, cross-media and digital content and platform companies. He was co-founder and CEO of digital start-up Silicon Media Group. After its acquisition by CNET Networks, Tom led the expansion of this highly profitable digital content pure play in Europe. Tom joined cross-media platform business Magicalia as CEO in mid 2008, working with Exponent Private Equity. The merger of Magicalia, BBC Magazines and Origin Publishing in November 2011 created Immediate Media Co. Tom has steered the company to fast growth in both profitability and digital innovation since then.

Award-winning print and digital art director with over 18 years' of experience. Formerly at Stylist, Northstar, The Guardian, Esquire, WIRED and The Times. Claire is currently an artist agent with Studio PI, a photography and illustration agency that supports underrepresented artists in the creative industry – particularly women, people of colour, those with disabilities and those from working-class backgrounds.

Hugh has been MD of The Stage Media Co since 2012 following periods at Thomson Financial, Emap and Reed International. His first role in publishing was as a reporter at William Reed. His career has included a period practising as a criminal barrister.

Digital and cultural transformation have been significant aspects of his current role. In 2020 the company acquired Bookseller Media expanding its titles, websites and events.     

Andy Cowles is an accomplished creative director whose leadership roles include Editorial Development Director of Time Inc. UK, Creative Director of Mademoiselle for Condé Nast and Creative Director of Rolling Stone in NYC. Andy has won multiple editorial and design awards, including the UK’s most prestigious, the BSME Mark Boxer award. He is a Guardian Masterclass trainer and guest lecturer on MA courses at UAL, Cardiff and Nottingham

Andy is the founder of London's leading logo consultancy Cowles Media (www.cowlesmedia.london).

Ivor is Managing Director of MGP Ltd, a specialist publisher dedicated to promoting best practice in healthcare. Prior to founding MGP in 1994, Ivor spent 13 years in the pharmaceutical industry in sales, marketing, and general management with Schwarz Pharma, ICI Pharmaceuticals, and Kabi Pharmacia. Ivor is a past Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Marketing (PM) Society and of the Hertfordshire Valleys CCG Dacorum Patients Group. MGP is the current PPA Independent Publishing Company of the Year.

Trevor has more than 30 years' experience of the global business information market as Managing Director of Euromonitor International plc, the leading publisher of market research analysis and reference databases and online information systems servicing the global business and academic research markets. Euromonitor operates from offices in London, Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai and Vilnius.

Sam is Chief Customer Officer at Bauer Media, leading the Customer Marketing Team.  Prior to re-joining Bauer in May 2020 Sam spent 3 years at National Geographic transforming the European magazine business, launching the UK website, and running the Guest Editor programme. During Sam’s first tenure at Bauer Media she held several roles across many of Bauer’s flagship markets including Celebrity, Gardening and Women’s Specialist. With 20+ years in publishing Sam has built and shaped many brands by leading multi-discipline publishing teams in delivering customer-led growth strategies.

Sally Hampton is a Consumer Magazines Publisher with DC Thomson Media. She oversees a diverse portfolio of UK and Scottish interest magazine brands. Her role involves identifying opportunities to grow existing DC Thomson Media titles through innovation and expansion – and launching new products across a variety of platforms. Most recently, she was a key member of the team that delivered Platinum magazine, one of the biggest launches in consumer magazines in recent times.

Having held various positions in his 12-year stint at the BBC, James Hewes was part of the team that sold the business to private equity in November 2011. He was then Publishing Director for Top Gear, Good Food, Easy Cook and Lonely Planet Magazine and a Director of BBC Haymarket Exhibitions.

He spent five years in Dubai, running Gulf News Publishing and responsible for more than 30 product areas. He launched the group’s first consumer brand in Arabic – wheels Arabic.

Appointed President & CEO of FIPP in September 2017, he joined from The Art Newspaper, having been Interim CEO since December 2016.

He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Dojoko, an education-focused start-up and a member of Oxford Brookes University’s Journalism Advisory Board.

Peter Houston is co-host of the weekly Media Voices podcast, where he discusses the media business and interviews senior publishing executives, and a founder of the Publisher Podcast Awards. He writes regularly about the media, and runs Flipping Pages Media, providing cross-platform consultancy and training to publishers.

Executive director at Think, John runs a team that creates digital content, print magazines and virtual events for a range of consumer organisations and leading brands, including the Royal Photographic Society, National Trust for Scotland, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Petplan and many more. John is Chair of the PPA in Scotland and a judge for several communication industry awards.
During his career John has worked on a range of consumer magazines including Gardens Illustrated, Fortean Times, Sight & Sound and written for publications including .net, The Guardian and The Word.

Uwern Jong is Experientialist-in-Chief of luxury and experiential travel journal rooted in diversity, discovery and discernment, OutThere magazine, that picked up the first PPA Independent Publisher Award for Diversity Initiative of the Year. He was the 2020 winner of “Editor of the Year” at the Campaign Publishing Awards. Through OutThere, Uwern also delivers bespoke content creation and creative branding, primarily working with destinations and luxury travel brands, specialising in both luxury and inclusive and diversity-driven content for the modern traveller, as well as being an advocate for greater inclusion in the travel and publishing industries. He is the Founder of the global LGBT+ Travel Symposium series, helping and training travel brands to be more inclusive in their outreach and Co-Founder of Stockholm LGBT, a members-based destination marketing platform. www.OutThere.travel

After more than 15 years’ communications experience with leading global brands, Effie now coordinates Hearst UK's PR and communications and sits on the Hearst UK Diversity & Belonging steering committee. Her team also won Best PR & Communications Team at the Drum PR Awards 2020 and Silver for Best In House Team at the Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards 2020.

She previously held the position of Communications Director at Bauer Media, leading its broadcast and then publishing arm, and she spent several years at the BBC as a journalist and working within its TV and radio businesses. Effie has led teams at many communications agencies, including Splendid Communications, Clarity, Weber Shandwick, Talk.Global and M&C Saatchi, working with some of the world’s biggest tech, media, FMCG, beauty and healthcare brands. She is a former BME PR Pros mentor and is a current Women in PR Mentor.

Effie has worked with global brands including: P&G, Coty, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Huawei, Samsung, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Coca Cola, Diageo and Pernod Ricard.

Laura Kelly joined The Big Issue as Digital Producer in 2020. She is a journalist, columnist and podcaster with an enduring passion for The Big Issue's social mission. Laura has long been a regular contributor and is a former Arts and Features Editor for The Big Issue. As the Editorial Manager for the International Network of Street Papers she built strong links with the global campaign to end homelessness. She has also written for The Herald, Sunday Herald and The Skinny, and has appeared on BBC Northern Ireland as a commentator on political and cultural issues. In 2019, she was named Columnist of the Year at the Words by Women Awards for her work in Holyrood Magazine. As the manager of the Professional Publishers Association Scotland, she launched the world’s first week-long festival dedicated to magazines – the Edinburgh International Magazine Festival. She was born and brought up in Belfast, and is now based in Glasgow. She is passionate about social justice, feminism, music and magazines.

Lynn has been working in media and marketing for over 24 years and has spent 17 of them helping The Drum become one of the largest industry titles in the world. She sits on the exec leadership team and has strategic input into the direction of the business globally, across all areas including publishing, membership products and events.

Her global remit has allowed her to expand the business internationally, driving growth in areas such as New York, Singapore, and London, bringing together thousands of people from across the whole spectrum of the industry’s ecosystem. Recently she led the team through major digital transformation, to focus on the virtual world and rapidly become a highly sought-after experiential content and events proposition, now offering white label solutions to clients.

She spends much time working on strategic partnerships with some of the biggest tech giants, agencies, and brands. She is a professional emcee and has hosted +250 events including Content and PITCH stages at Web Summit, Global Ace Awards New York, DoubleClick Bid Manager Awards (a Google company) and many of The Drum’s flagship awards and conferences. She is well-versed at judging industry awards including Event Industry Awards 2020, Awards Awards and The Drum Experiential Awards.

Previously Lynn worked for News International (now News UK) and Business a.m. in commercial, promotional and circulation roles. But most importantly, she is a proud mum to her eighteen-year-old son and two beautiful cats called Bella and Milo.

Founded by Tilly and her business partner 22 years ago, Think is a UK media group specialising in producing multichannel content and consultancy for membership organisations, brands and the travel sector. The group brings together Think, our content and publishing agency, Think Travel, our travel publishing brands, and Re:Think, our publishing consultancy. We have over 70 staff across England and Scotland, and the group is still fully owned by the founders.

Tilly is also a Trustee of the think tank, Demos, a non-executive director of Welbeck Publishing Group (formerly Carlton Books) and sits on the Development Board of the National Youth Theatre.

Daniel Morris is the Commercial Director of Client Solutions at The Economist Group. He is responsible for the global revenue of the Client Solutions business which includes the group’s advertising platforms, content solutions, and policy and thought leadership research. Daniel leads the global sales and partnerships organisation and is a member of the leadership team defining the commercial, operational and strategic development of the Client Solutions business. Daniel also leads The Economist Group Global Client Partner programme, developing and executing strategies to better serve and grow the group’s largest enterprise partners.

During his time at The Economist Group, Daniel has developed and led commercial teams across multiple parts of the business and supported strategic grow initiatives such as the acquisition, integration and growth of several specialist business intelligence and consulting businesses. He’s worked mainly out of the London HQ but also spent time in the Middle East as part of the team that opened the group’s Dubai office in 2008. Daniel joined The Economist Group in 2004 to support the development of the Economist Intelligences Unit’s Thought Leadership business and oversaw its growth and development working across multiple client sectors and regions.

Before joining The Economist Group Daniel held several commercial roles at the global business-to-business information services business, Euromoney. Daniel holds a degree from Imperial College London and is an associate of the Royal Society of Science.

Kerin O’Connor joined Dennis Publishing in 1996 as Marketing Manager, when the company acquired The Week magazine. He became Associate Publisher within a year and Publisher a year later. Over the years among many other things he has held the role of International Publishing director where he expanded Maxim into 30 territories worldwide, and was the launch Publisher for MoneyWeek. In January 2006, his role changed to Executive Director of Dennis and he renewed his focus on The Week and the Dennis consumer portfolio, where he became MD.

Kerin became Chief Executive of Dennis Publishing’s flagship title, The Week, in 2011; shortly afterwards in 2012 he was awarded the PPA Publisher of the Year award for his work. His focus on expanding the brand has grown the magazine’s circulation hugely, and it is one of the biggest paid-for print and digital magazines in the UK. In advertising performance, The Week is the established market leader.

In 2015, Kerin launched The Week Junior, a news magazine aimed at helping 8-14 year olds make sense of the world. It was awarded Launch of the Year at the British Media Awards 2016 and a host of other awards. It has been Britain’s fastest growing magazine since 2018, with a circulation of over 98,000. In 2020, Kerin launched The Week Junior in America with over 100,000 subscription orders in the first year.

Angie now heads up all content verticals within the Future portfolio covering, Games, Photography & Design, Homes & Gardens, Music, Sports, Women’s Lifestyle, Country Lifestyle, Tech Lifestyle, TV & Film, Marie Claire and GoodtoKnow. Her career started in marketing and brand development prior to joining TI Media in 2001, where she worked as a publishing director across specialist & mainstream brands and also led a company-wide editorial transformation programme. She was appointed to the TI Media Executive team in 2017, becoming Group Managing Director of the Life & Style portfolio. She, along with her MDs, are focused on growing the reach & monetisation of our many iconic brands across the globe.

Daniel Pearce is CEO and owner of TTG Media. After joining the Travel Trade Gazette as editor in 2010, he moved to brand director in 2012 before mounting a management buy-out in 2013 and setting up TTG Media as a wholly independent business. Since then TTG Media has gone from strength to strength, launching a string of new initiatives including the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies, TTG LGBT events, the ttgluxury Travel Awards, the ttgluxury Travel Summit, new website ttgmedia.com and the TTG Diversity & Inclusion in Travel conference.

In April 2019 the business saw a rebrand under a new vision for a ‘Smarter, Better, Fairer’ travel industry – and new investment in print publishing, with TTG magazine, now monthly, still at the heart of the industry 67 years after its first edition.

In November 2019 TTG Media was named Independent Publishing Company of the Year the PPA Independent Publisher Awards, while in May 2020 TTG was named Business Media Brand of the Year at the Campaign Publishing Awards.

Christopher Phin is the Head of Podcasts for DC Thomson Media. Working with enthusiastic, passionate colleagues across the UK and beyond, he’s helped build a podcast folio that spans sport, education, B2B, politics, gardening and more. He’s excited about the power podcasts have to find new audiences and turn existing audiences into superfans.

Having started her career in sales at Haymarket Rachael quickly moved into commercial leadership roles across a wide range of consumer media markets including automotive, football, and technology. In 2008, Rachael moved into brand leadership becoming Brand Director of What Hifi? and Stuff before returning to Automotive in 2015. In 2017 Rachael was appointed Managing Director of Haymarket Automotive, charged with delivering the business transformational plan behind Haymarket’s automotive brands - What Car?, Autocar, Classic & Sports Car, and CAT. Rachael chairs the judging panel for Autocar’s Great British Women in the Car Industry, is the member representative for the European Car of the Year OC and the member representative for the Automotive 30% Club. In addition to her role at Haymarket, Rachael is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Richmond Upon Thames School, a school founded by Haymarket in partnership with Harlequins RFC, and the local education authority. She is married with three children.

Charles is CEO of William Reed, providers of business information covering grocery, retail, hospitality, drinks, food manufacturing, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The business, established in 1862, is a fifth-generation family-owned company employing 300 people with its head office near Gatwick and global offices in Montpellier, Chicago & Singapore.

William Reed produces and organises a wide portfolio of market-leading digital and insight products, exhibitions, magazines, events and related activities.

Mandy Rhodes is the managing director of Holyrood Communications and editor of the flagship title Holyrood magazine. Mandy graduated from Stirling University in the early 1980s with a joint honours degree in Scottish history and sociology. She trained on a local newspaper in Wester Hailes and completed her journalism training at Napier University. She has worked for more than 35 years in journalism in Scotland and London in newsprint, television and radio broadcasting and was part of the launch team of Scotland on Sunday. She has won numerous awards over the years including PPA Magazine Editor of the Year, Feature Writer of the Year and Columnist of the Year. Mandy brings a wealth of media experience to Holyrood Communications and an unparalleled contacts book. She is one Scotland’s most influential and connected ;political commentators and Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, has described her as “one of the best interviewers” in the business.

Ben has been a key member of EA Inclusion (a global cultural change, inclusion & diversity, and behavioural impact consultancy) since 2013, where he works with global organisations across all industries and sectors.

This year Ben has led the PPA’s first-ever industry-wide diversity and inclusion survey, offering insight into the industry as a whole, with a view to identify representation, track progress made, and help tackle challenges.

Aside from his work with the PPA, Ben’s other experience within publishing includes working with the Publishers Association to deliver their industry diversity and inclusion survey for the last 3 years, along with working with several of their members to deliver a wide range of consultancy and training services. Additionally, Ben has also delivered a project with the CIC (Creative Industries Council) looking at progress that has been made on diversity and inclusion across the creative industries as a whole, which included a specific focus on publishing.

As Chairman, Nick is the fourth generation to lead The Hemming Group, a 128-year-old, family-owned B2B media company. With an emphasis on quality content, the company produces digital and paper-based magazines and information products, and digital and physical conferences, exhibitions and awards ceremonies. The markets it serves, include local government, highway and bridge construction and maintenance, traffic management, the wine trade, building services, and the management of stadia and arenas.

After studying Civil Engineering at Oxford, Nick worked in ad sales and marketing for Maclean-Hunter in Toronto and International Thompson Business Publishing in London. He joined the Hemming Group in 1988 and set up their magazine marketing department. He worked his way up to become General Manager of the directory publishing division, and from there was made Group Managing Director in 1995.

Nick stepped down in 2002, after seven successful years in the position, and moved to Madrid with his family. There, after two years as an independent business consultant for SMEs, he was appointed Marketing Director of Salesforce Europe SL, an international outsourced high-tech sales agency. When the economic crisis hit in 2008, he set up his own company providing coaching in English for Spanish business people and professionals.

In January 2015, he returned to the Hemming Group as Chairman, commuting from Madrid on a weekly basis. He is a non-executive director of Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) and the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). In the past, he has served as a director of the Periodical Training Council, the Publishing NTO (National Training Organisation) and the Maria Montessori Training Organisation, and as the Financial Trustee of the Commonwealth Countries League.

Having worked in B2B Media since 1997, Kevin now heads up the financial services division at Incisive Media. The division includes leading brands Investment Week, Professional Pensions and Professional Adviser. Kevin’s role involves identifying opportunities to grow existing Incisive Media titles through innovation and expansion – and launching new products across a variety of platforms.

Lisa Smosarski is the editor-in-chief of the award-winning women’s weekly Stylist, and a board director of The Stylist Group.

Lisa joined Stylist in September 2009 as launch editor of the freemium weekly magazine, and has subsequently overseen the feminist brand’s expansion which now includes an award-winning website, video studios, the annual Stylist Live event, the Remarkable Women Awards and a new fitness brand, Stylist Strong.

As editor in-chief she has seen Stylist win over 100 industry awards, including PPA editor of the year, and BSME weekly editor of the year.

Prior to this, Lisa was the editor of more!, bliss and Smash Hits, launch edited mykindaplace.com and has been a contributor to many UK magazines. Lisa also presented the Channel 4 TV series, Make Me A Grown Up.

Gideon has been UK editor-in-chief of Campaign since March 2020, after joining the advertising magazine in 2015 as head of media and becoming global head of media in 2017. He has previously worked for the London Evening Standard, The Independent, The Times and CNN and is a former chair of the Broadcasting Press Guild, a national association of journalists who cover the broadcast industry.

Julian Thorne is the Chief Customer Officer of Dennis Publishing. He heads up a team in the US and UK responsible for managing and growing a total subscription base of 1.7m print and digital subscribers. Prior to joining Dennis Julian founded The Big Wheel Consultancy which specialised in providing marketing consultancy and data insight services to publishers seeking to maximise their membership and/or subscription revenues. Julian has previously held various senior executive positions including, CEO of Dovetail Services and Marketing Director at Saga. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing and a non executive director of History Today Publishing.

Mandy is Director, Magazines at BBC Studios. She is responsible for Top Gear magazine and Topgear.com as well as the strategic partnership with Immediate Media for the stable of BBC branded magazines. This is Mandy’s second stint with the commercial arm of the BBC having previously been the MD of Galleon (Dovetail). She has worked in roles across the publishing industry for her entire career.

Sabine Vandenbroucke is the Chief Operating Officer of Condé Nast Publishing, where she oversees the operations of the British editions of Vogue, GQ, House and Garden, World of Interiors, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Tatler, Condé Nast Johansens, Condé Nast Traveller and Wired. Previously she was Winkorp’s Chief Financial Officer, the parent company of design agency Winkreative and media brand Monocle which she helped establish and develop into multiple brand extensions with global reach.

She sits on the board of Condé Nast Publishing Ltd , Belgian printer/publisher Die Keure as well as the National Army Museum in London and previously held board roles in Winkorp’s global entities.

Sabine studied business engineering in Belgium before completing her MBA at INSEAD. A Belgian native who speaks four languages, she moved to the UK in 2003 after holding international executive positions in Cologne, Maastricht and Paris across a number of blue chip industries.

As CEO of Hearst UK, James has overall management responsibility for the company. He joined in April 2017 with a wealth of experience in transforming media companies, and was elevated to President, Hearst Europe in September 2019 adding oversight of Hearst in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany to his remit.

Hearst is the UK’s leading premium content and experiences business, publishing 26 iconic brands including ELLE, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. Hearst UK circulates more than five million magazines a month and its award-winning content is engaged with by more than 20 million monthly digital UK users. Every year over a million people attend Hearst’s highly acclaimed events such as the Country Living Fairs and Red Smart Women Week.

At Hearst, James has led a business turnaround, culminating in a return to top-line revenue growth in 2018 after several years of decline. The company has gone from strength to strength under James’ leadership to accelerate its revenue diversification and digital development strategy, which has paid strong dividends. A relentless focus on cultural transformation has also driven strong gains in team engagement and business success.

James has worked in the media industry for over 25 years and joined Hearst from Reach PLC (previously Trinity Mirror) where he was Chief Revenue Officer from 2014 with responsibility for commercial revenue across the group. From 2011, he was Yahoo’s Managing Director, UK & Ireland, responsible for leading Yahoo’s biggest market outside the US. Prior to that, James worked in TV, with stints at ITV and other commercial television businesses, working his way up to become Managing Director of Virgin Media’s television sales house from 2005.

Lorna joined Archant as Digital Sales Director in March 2010 before moving to become Client Strategy and Solutions Director for Archant Dialogue in 2013. She was then promoted to Digital Development Director for the group, before moving to the Leadership team as Executive Director, Digital, Data and Insight in 2018 and then Archant’s Chief Client Officer in 2019. Lorna was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in March 2021.

Nina completed a BSC (Hons) Psychology Degree in Liverpool before undertaking a career in the media industry over 25 years ago. Nina joined New Scientist Media Company as CEO in October 2018, an accomplished business leader, with a notable track record in turnaround and driving transformational growth, particularly skilled in digital NPD and recurring revenues. Prior to joining New Scientist, Nina worked at UBM, where her most recent role was Chief Commercial Officer for EMEA.